Alien Isolation redefines what it means for a game to be immersive. It shies away from the usual FPS genre by putting you in the shoes of a vulnerable human being where every uncalculated action could be fatal.
There are very few weapons and ammo in the game and using them is usually a bad idea. Any loud noises are a bad idea. If not the Alien or the synthetics, it will be the humans who get you.
There's quite a bit of tension and sneaking isn't as simple as one might expect. The Alien is extremely agile and can follow you anywhere you might think is safe. It learns from your actions and adapts accordingly. Hide in cabinets too often and it will use all sorts of tricks to get you to reveal your presence before busting open the cabinet. It even fakes some of its actions, making you think it left the room running when in fact it's on its way back. Some have complained about the repetitive tasks but they're never the same. There is actually a reason behind every action and it's not always about the Alien as there are different parts of the game where the Alien isn't the center of interest. This is exactly what makes Alien Isolation stand out of crowd. A human cannot just take on a killing machine with bazookas and rocket launchers on a ship in the middle of space. The need to be clever is an essential part of the game and trying to beat the adaptive AI is actually a lot of fun.
Technically, the visuals are stunning. The dynamic lighting and volumetrics with astonishing attention to detail and grading with little to no slowdown on a 4 year old laptop give a very cinematic experience. I should add aesthetics as another dangerous enemy as it will leave you contemplating the scenery, breathless. Not for long though, as a heartless killing machine reminds you of the dangers by leaping from nowhere. This is as close as it gets to the first Alien movie. Such hard work to reproduce the original look and feel of the movie goes a long way. The result is an experience so close to the movie that for once, it is possible to experience what the crew of the Nostromo went through first hand. Evey time I enter a new room, I stand baffled at how amazing the game looks. The combination of high resolution textures, vectorised textures, dynamic soft shadows, shader effects and particle FX give it a very cinematic feel. Lighting is by far the strongest aspect of the game as it is not only exteremely realistic, it's used in such ways that it helps tell the story. This is film making in a game.
Alien Isolation is a pure gem in today's rogue FPS shooting genre. A true masterpiece that should not be overlooked.
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